16
December 2008 - In the Danish Air Quality
Guideline (Luftvejledningen) the Danish
Environmental Protection Agency recommends
that the OML atmospheric dispersion model
is used for compliance checking for industrial
facilities. The current procedure to compare
concentration levels with the limit value
is based on the use of one years' worth
of meteorological data.
In order to obtain a
better statistically founded basis for assessing
the level of air pollution, the present
study examines how the current use of one
year of meteorological data can be extended
to 10 years.
The current use of only one year of data
occasionally causes problems in the interpretation
of the geographical distributions of the
concentration levels.
That is because different
levels in different directions from the
source might be due to random meteorological
conditions, or due to the source configuration.
The procedure is based on the statistical
parameter known as the maximum monthly 99-percentile
for one meteorological year (Kastrup Airport
1976).
The present study uses
10 years of meteorological data from two
Danish airports in Kastrup and Ålborg.
These data are used for dispersion calculations
for different types of point sources with
varying stack heights, plume rise and possible
nearby buildings.
In order to obtain a
new statistical parameter for the exposure
- that corresponds to the current level
of the maximum monthly 99-percentile and
can be compared to the C-value (‘limit value’)
of the Guideline – the new statistics are
based on the 120 monthly 99-percentiles
for the 10 years of calculations. The 99-percentiles
are ranked, and selected statistics are
assessed, e.g. the maximum of all monthly
99-percentiles, the 4th highest monthly
99-percentile, the 8th highest monthly 99-percentile,
the 12th highest monthly 99-percentile,
and the average monthly 99-percentile.
The study recommends
that for future assessments the statistical
parameter to be compared with the C-value
of the Guideline is the 4th highest monthly
99-percentile based on 10 years of meteorological
data from Ålborg Airport for the period
1974 to 1983.
The new percentile provides
a more robust and simple assessment of directional
impacts - an assessment that is not affected
by random meteorological conditions. It
assures that computed concentrations can
be taken at face value, avoiding the need
for interpretation of the causes of a particular
concentration pattern.
As a spin-off of the
study it is recommended that - for substances
in the Guideline where the C-values are
based on dosage - the C-value should be
used in a different way than at present.
It is recommended that 1/40 of the C-value
should be compared to the long-term (10
year) mean value calculated with OML.
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Content of selected
pesticide products OK
16 December 2008 - Samples
of selected groups of pesticides have been
collected from the Danish market in 2007
and analysed to verify whether the actual
contents of the respective active ingredients
in the products comply with the labelled
content. The tolerance of deviation from
the labelled content of active ingredient
is set by the Danish Statutory Order on
pesticides. In addition to the examination
of the content of active ingredients, all
collected samples are examined for the content
of octylphenol ethoxylates and nonylphenol
ethoxylates. The industry and the Danish
authorities have agreed on removing these
compounds from all Danish-sold pesticide
formulations produced after June 2000.
Five different groups
of products covered by the pesticide regulation
were included in the 2007 analytical chemical
authority control:
1. Herbicides containing
cycloxydim, diflufenican and triflusulfuron-methyl.
2. Fungicides containing boscalid, dimethomorph,
epoxiconazole, fenpropimorph, mancozeb and
propamocarb.
3. Insecticides containing fipronil.
4. Plant growth regulators containing daminozide.
5. Insect repellents containing icaridin.
Satisfactory results
were found for all examined pesticide formulations.
Thus, the analysed samples of these formulations
complied with the accepted tolerance limits
with respect to the content of the active
ingredients as specified in Danish Statutory
Order on pesticides.
None of the examined
samples contained octylphenol ethoxylates
or nonylphenol ethoxylates.
On the label of seven
products, the content of active ingredient
was declared only in g/L or g/Kg, but not
in % (w/w) as required by the Statutory
Order.
